Amenozume Heights and Depths Read online

  “Your magic mirror has told you the sister is in trouble? Is it because of Ivaric?” the Queen asked.

  Silas paused as he digested the fact that the Queen was aware of his mirror, as well as aware of Ivaric’s interference in the politics of Amenozume. He had only met the Queen once before – that he could remember! – yet she was in the know about highly secret matters.

  “Yes, it is the mirror that told us,” he saw no point in lying. “You can understand that we have to go back to help Jade.”

  “She’s a fortunate woman to have someone as formidable as you coming to her rescue,” the Queen conceded. “Go safely, and when you’re done, I hope you’ll come back here, where we can appreciate you and reward you appropriately.

  “I’ll keep an eye open for news of you,” Preeanne said graciously. “Now,” she pressed her plate back from the edge, half its contents eaten already, “I must go about my duties. Feel free to eat as much as you want,” she offered as she stood up, and waved an inviting hand towards the food that remained on the table.

  She smiled, then walked away, before Silas could even stand up.

  Chapter 2

  Silas ate no more, before he left the royal chamber and the palace, then returned to the Guild hall apartment where Mata was awaiting him.

  “How was the palace?” she asked as soon as Silas walked in the door.

  “I had breakfast with the Queen,” he answered in as casual a tone as possible.

  “Oh, and I had breakfast with the Princess of the Sprites,” Mata replied sarcastically.

  “No, really. She was wearing a robe and we ate at a table in her bedroom. She’d like for us to stay in Faralag,” he told Mata. He recognized the immediate opposition that Mata was preparing to voice.

  “But of course, I said ‘no’,” Silas hurriedly added.

  “I told her we were going to Amenozume to rescue your sister,” he explained.

  “Mata,” he continued to speak, before the girl could interject, “the Queen knew about the Mirror.”

  “I didn’t tell anyone in Faralag!” Mata spoke defensively. “Don’t blame me. Someone else must have told her.”

  “Who?” Silas asked. “Not your sister or the princess or Gwen. Not Dianu or the Healer. Not Ruten or Prima or Minnie. I can’t imagine how she knew.”

  “Maybe the sprites told her,” Mata suggested impishly. “There’s no telling. It’s a mystery, unless you want to go back to the palace and ask. But it really doesn’t matter. We need to be planning to leave.”

  “Yes, you’re right,” Silas agreed. “I need to go tell the Guild people that we’re leaving. Give me time to traipse around to find Kajam and Cover and Riesta,” he requested.

  “You’ve got one hour,” Mata said severely, but with a smile.

  Silas kissed the girl, then bolted out the door and began making his courtesy calls. He found each of his hosts and informed them of his departure.

  “It’s time for me to go, Master,” Silas informed Cover first. “We’ve completed our duty here, and we’re needed elsewhere.”

  “I had hoped you would stay; you’d be celebrated as a hero for the next ten years, you know,” Cover replied. “It’s our loss that you won’t bring your abilities to the Guild.

  “I have to ask you to return the crystal, of course,” Cover mentioned awkwardly, after a momentary pause.

  “I know,” Silas sighed. He had hoped that the instructor would either forget or overlook the useful gift that had carried Silas through the needs of the platform construction, but saw that it was not to be. He opened his belt and worked the talisman out from the stitching, then handed the crystal over to Cover.

  “You used it well,” Cover seemed surprised by the ease with which he had retrieved the ability-boosting artifact.

  “I’ll miss it,” Silas acknowledged. He spoke truly, but with a degree of confidence that the crystal might no longer be needed.

  Silas had considered and reconsidered the meaning of the conversation Kai and Kere had carried out regarding Silas’s healing in the magical water of the elven goddess’s spring. If he had truly been healed of L’Anvien’s wicked meddling with his health, then Silas expected that he would be able to finally generate his telekinetic powers upon demand, through the use of the traditional training methods that Cover had instructed him in. It might take some practice and time, but he felt optimistic about the prospects for him to emerge from Faralag as a fully functional Mover.

  “You’ll come back someday, of course,” Cover told Silas as he accepted the crystal. “We’ll all be waiting for you to show up and amaze us all with your abilities.”

  The teacher and student engaged in a hearty handshake, then Silas parted. He next found Kajam, and informed the head of the Guild that he was leaving.

  “We won’t stop you, of course,” Kajam replied. “You upheld your end of the bargain – and quite well! We’ll do the same, but we’ll miss seeing your abilities at work.”

  And finally, Silas found the blond-haired Riesta, about to leave the Guild facilities to work a shift at the platform by the central towers.

  “Without you around, I’ll be the strongest Mover again,” she observed. “But everyone will always say ‘Silas would have done it faster,’” she laughed. “Best wishes to you and Mata on a good journey. “I hope we’ll see you again soon, for a longer residence.”

  The pair hugged in a friendly fashion, and then Silas climbed back up to the apartment, where Mata had their two packs ready to go.

  “How are we leaving?” Mata asked.

  “We’ll go to the harbor to ask Adams,” Silas said. “With any luck, there will be a ship ready to sail to Amenozume, and we can board it. At the least, we’ll sail somewhere with a busy harbor so that we can sail on to the island.”

  They left the apartment and walked hand in hand out into the city and through the streets to the gate to the harbor, then entered the falsely decrepit section of the city, a neighborhood deliberately designed to convey an air of dereliction and decay so that visiting sailors would not know the true nature of the sophisticated and advanced city that Faralag truly was.

  Adams’s office displayed the same atmosphere of an unmaintained character as the rest of the harbor quarter. The trader was sitting in his office, but looked up from the papers on his desk when Silas and Mata entered through his door.

  “The celebrity couple of the city! What an honor. Who would have thought things would turn out so well after that first day’s fight with a member of the Guild?” Adams grinned at his visitors, who laughed at the comment.

  We want to go to Amenozume,” Mata minced no words after the laughter. “Do you have a ship available?”

  “None for a long while,” Adams answered. “But there will be a ship leaving the harbor with the full tide after sunset tonight, bound for Barnesnob. You’re in luck; there are no other ships arriving or leaving for the next three days.

  “We’ll have to see if we can book passage for you,” he offered.

  “Can’t I just work as part of the crew to pay our passage?” Silas asked.

  “In other harbors, I’m sure that would be an option, but Faralag is different,” Adams answered. “A ship will seek to hire new crew to replace crew who have left it at a harbor. But no one leaves their ship at Faralag; there’s nothing for them to do here. So, the ships never lose crewmen and never have to hire crewmen.

  “You won’t be able to work for your passage; you’ll have to pay. Or, you’ll have to let me pay for you,” he continued.

  “You shouldn’t have to pay. You don’t owe us anything,” Silas protested.

  “Silas!” Mata tried to hush her companion through gritted teeth.

  “After all that you’ve done for the city, we all owe you. I expect the palace will reimbursement my expenses fully, don’t you worry,” Adams said confidently.

  By mid-afternoon, he had them squared away with a cabin and meals on board the freighter that was loading its cargo as it waited for the
tides to change.

  Adams accompanied the two travelers to the dock, and shook hands with them as they prepared to board the ship and end their unexpected residence in Faralag.

  “I’m sure we’ll hear about you,” Adams commented. “And I hope we’ll see you back here someday; I believe this city is where you belong.”

  And then Silas and Mata were onboard the vessel, and when the sun set, they stood on the deck as the crew worked the lines and the sails and the oars, and the ship carried them away from Faralag. The pair watched the red fading sunlight reflect from the top stories of the central towers of the city, until the light ceased, and they returned to their cabin.

  Chapter 3

  The voyage to Barnesnob from Faralag lasted five days. Mata spent portions of each day using the magic mirror to exchange notes with her sister, and spent more time practicing sword work with Silas on the deck, much to the entertainment of the crew of the ship. Without the duty of working as a crew member, Silas found much idle time onboard the ship, which he spent alternatively at sword practice, or practicing his telekinetic abilities.

  He was able to exercise some control, he found. For the first time, without the use of any assistant device, such as Cover’s crystal or hood, or without being stimulated through high emotions, he could focus on an object, and cause it to move. He practiced discreetly while he sat on the ship’s deck, moving small objects across his lap, and he practiced with slightly larger objects, moving them slightly greater distances, within the privacy of the cabin he shared with Mata.

  All the lessons that Cover had drilled into him came into focus, as he recollected many of them and used them. They didn’t always work. It was a reminder of his days in Heathrim, when he’d struggled so diligently as a student at the Wind Word academy, trying to learn the lessons of the arts of the Speakers. The only difference, and a major one, was that in Heathrim, the lessons had been classroom only lectures about the theory of Speaking the Wind Words. Now, with rudimentary Mover skills already developing, Silas was able to see the results of his practice as he tried various means of exercising his powers.

  On the fourth day of the voyage, the final full day the ship would be at sea, he had an opportunity to exercise his powers fully in a dramatic setting. A distant storm upon the ocean had produced large and numerous waves that created choppy conditions. The ship’s deck was too unsteady for the passengers to practice sword work upon it, so they simply leaned on the railing and looked at the waves and the distant horizon.

  They heard a shout overhead. Both Mata and Silas craned their necks to look up into the rigging and sails that were like clouds above their heads. Among the cables hanging from the end of one arm of the topsail yard, out over the edge of the ship’s deck, a sailor was swaying perilously as he lost his grip, then lost his balance and begin to plummet towards a drowning death in the waters of the ocean.

  Silas was filled with horror and instinctively reacted. He stretched a hand up in the air towards the man and shouted, “Stop!”, his adrenaline flowing. He felt the issuance of his telekinetic energy, and watched the man suddenly jerk to a stop. The unfortunate sailor hung in the air, drawing cries of astonishment from those on the ship watching the suspended tragedy unfold.

  “Silas?” Mata questioned in a quiet, urgent voice from his side.

  Silas immediately recognized the uproar his unplanned action had created.

  “Float down to the deck,” he directed, willing the man in the air to begin to float more than fall, and to descend at an angle so that he landed on the wooden deck with a landing that appeared hard enough to bruise, but not break any bones.

  Men from the ship flocked around the rescued sailor. From their nearby location at the railing, Silas and Mata could overhear most of the comments.

  “What did you do?”

  “It must have been the air currents.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” four or five men said, as they helped the shaken survivor to his feet and brushed him off.

  “I can’t explain it,” the man said. “I just felt suspended in the air for five seconds, then I floated over here. It must have been the swirling wind.”

  “What about the boy with the eyes? Could he have done it? Is he a sorcerer?” one officer asked, as all heads swiveled to look at the pair of passengers.

  “Silas,” Mata whispered.

  It was a moment of truth, Silas knew. He could try to deny the charges, or he could admit to them and seek a reasonable conversation. There was no way to prove his guilt, but the colors of his eyes alone might be all the proof the sailors on the ship would need.

  “Well, boy? Are you a sorcerer?” the officer asked.

  “I’m not a sorcerer,” Silas stepped forward and spoke. “But my eyes are strange colors.

  “And I did save that man’s life,” he added, drawing stares of shock.

  “I learned how to save him when I felt into a cave with gases that changed my eye colors. That’s where I got this power,” he admitted.

  No one made any move towards him or away from him.

  “Was that in Faralag?” one of the sailors asked.

  “I always thought that city was odd,” another one piped up.

  “No, it was far away from Faralag,” Silas asserted immediately. “We’re just trying to get away from that city,” Silas wanted to honorably protect the hidden nature of Faralag. “You’ve seen that city; we wanted to get away.”

  “If you can do that, what can she do?” one of the crewmen asked of Mata.

  “You don’t want to know,” Silas answered quickly. “She hasn’t been angry on this whole trip, and we ought to keep it that way.”

  “We’ll be in port tomorrow, and we’ll have our full crew still safe and alive, many thanks, my lord,” the officer in the group responded nervously. “We didn’t know we were carrying two such beings with us, and we’ve meant no harm so far.”

  “You’ve run a good ship with a good crew. There’s nothing to worry about,” Mata spoke up and assured the man. “Just take us to Barnesnob safely and we’ll all be able to go our own ways.”

  The gathering on the deck dispersed, and the crewmen went among their fellows, murmuring gossip about all that had occurred and been said, leading to many furtive glances at Silas and Mata for the following few hours, until the ship arrived at the docks of the Barnesnob harbor.

  Chapter 4

  Silas and Mata hurried off the ship, and were given a sincere thanks for saving the life of the crewman Silas had caught. Yet the crew and officers were happy to see the strange passengers depart nonetheless.

  “What do we do now?” Mata asked Silas.

  “Let’s go to the Healers Guild to stay the night with Dianu, and then we can find out about ships tomorrow,” Silas suggested.

  “What if there’s a ship leaving today for Amenozume? Shouldn’t we try to get home as fast as possible?” Mata asked anxiously.

  “I don’t know any traders here, like we had Burr and Hamilton and Adams in the other cities,” Silas explained. “The traders knew all the shipping details, and Barnesnob is a busy port. We should be able to find something quickly after we have time to check on things,” he added.

  “And you can meet Dianu, the healer who showed me how to heal your injuries after we escaped from the prison,” he added.

  “Okay, I guess it makes sense,” Mata grudgingly gave way.

  “This is Silas, a speaker, calling Grecco, the Speaker of the Healing Guild. Grecco, Silas is requesting a conversation,” Silas surprised Mata by suddenly raising his head and speaking loudly as he twisted to face to the side of the street, as though addressing the blank wall that was beside them.

  “What are you doing?” she asked in a no-nonsense tone.

  “This is Grecco, responding to Silas. I am ready for your conversation, though I’m not sure where to direct my answer. If you hear this, reply and let me know your location, then we can carry on at your convenience, Silas,” the response that Silas h
eard but that Mata didn’t hear arrived immediately because of the close proximity of the two speakers to one another.

  “Grecco, can I meet you at the gate to the Healers Guild in ten minutes?” Silas asked.

  “You’re here in the city? Now?” Grecco was astonished to realize that the pair were conversing in real time.

  “Are you really talking to someone, or just pretending so that you can ignore me?” Mata pestered him.

  “Just landed in the Harbor. See you soon,” Silas answered Grecco.

  “We should go to the Guild headquarters to meet Grecco,” Silas finally turned and looked at Mata, his eyes coming back into focus as he looked at her. “We can see about getting a room, and find out what is going on,” he took her by the hand, and started leading her through the streets, in the general direction of the Guild headquarters.

  The Speaker was waiting for them when they reached the gate to the Healers campus.

  “You have a companion, I see,” Grecco immediately spoke as he shook Silas’s hand, but looked at Mata. “Who is this?”

  “My name is Matta; I’m from Amenozume,” the girl stepped forward and shook Grecco’s hand.

  “Oh? Have you just come from Amenozume? I understand there are troubled times on the island,” Grecco commented.

  “If I remember right, you’re no friend of Ivaric?” the Speaker looked back at Silas.

  “No, no friend at all,” he agreed. “But we are coming from Amenozume, in a roundabout manner. We left there a while ago and were wandering around. Now we think we may want to go back, to help Mata’s sister.

  “We want to find a ship that will carry us there,” Silas informed the Speaker. “And I hoped we could spend a night here.”

  “Come in,” Grecco waved them through the gate and past the guards. “I imagine you’d like to go to the Master’s home again, eh? Let’s go visit the lady Dianu to see if she will be your hostess.”